Pollutant Disguise Plan (POLLUTANT)
Where is the most terrifying place in the apocalyptic world?
Is it the Containment Facilities with their orderly isolation rooms and resembling laboratories? Or the contamination rifts that constantly spew out contaminated entities?
Actually, neither.
The most horrifying place in this apocalyptic world is the Contaminant Disposal Centers.
As the name suggests, the Contaminant Disposal Center is a facility dedicated to processing contamination.
It serves two functions: first, the neutralization of contaminated corpses, and second, the neutralization of patients deemed incurable by Containment Facilities—whether alive or dead.
A girl in protective gear and glasses cradled a stack of files in one arm while dragging a single-person gurney with the other. Strapped to the gurney was a contaminated corpse that was secured with specialized materials.
As she rounded a corner, the gurney jerked, and she instinctively reached to steady it—only for the files in her hand to scatter across the floor.
"Ah!" she couldn’t help but yelp under her breath. "I’m swamped!"
"Can’t the Center hire more people?!"
Despite her complaints, she knew better than anyone that the Contaminant Disposal Center was a place everyone avoided. As a hazardous, frontline department dealing with contamination—one that didn’t exactly sound glamorous—its reputation was downright terrifying.
Mutants would rather join the security forces and put themselves in the spotlight than haul corpses at the Contaminant Disposal Centers.
After muttering a few choice curses, the girl resignedly crouched to gather the strewn documents.
Halfway through, someone suddenly knelt beside her and helped to pick up the files.
"Thank you!"
She looked up—and her voice died in her throat.
At the Contaminant Disposal Center, the people around her were either elderly men or overworked colleagues with thinning hair and dark circles under their eyes. The convicts sent here as forced labor were even worse to look at. But the person helping her? A bona fide heartthrob.
The man wasn’t wearing the bulky protective suit, just a simplified version. She recognized it—the uniform of the Corpse Disposal Unit, jokingly referred to by its members as the "white sack." Yet on him, even the sack looked effortlessly stylish.
Paired with black-framed glasses and a white mask, he was the epitome of a dreamy, aloof male lead.
Wait—where did he come from?
The man handed her the collected files.
Dazed, she accepted them. "...Thanks, really."
"No problem."
Damn, even his voice was mesmerizing!
Unfortunately, interrogating strangers was a luxury she couldn’t afford—time was the one thing she lacked most. Regretfully, she hugged the files to her chest and continued dragging the corpse forward.
After delivering the body to the designated department and getting the paperwork signed, she finally exhaled in relief.
"Hey, guess what?"
She struck up a conversation with her coworkers. "On my way here, I ran into this gorgeous guy. Tall, handsome—wearing a mask with this icy stare, like he walked straight out of a drama."
The person gloomily inputting data at the terminal glanced up. "You must’ve met Shen Ji."
"Shen Ji?"
"One of our newly hired staff," the person continued typing furiously with resentment, "A rare case of a Mutant who actively sought employment at the Contaminant Disposal Center. He completely baffled our boss during the interview, who came back afterward asking us what social anxiety is and why someone would prefer dealing with corpses over living people."
"Yesterday was his first day, and he just finished his shift."
"He's a Mutant?"
"Not just any Mutant—a Sensory-type Mutant at that."
"...Wow, a Sensory-type Mutant willing to work at the Contaminant Disposal Center? He must be a really good person."
Meanwhile, Shen Ji was walking through the Contaminant Disposal Center.
He used to think the rumors about the Contaminant Disposal Centers were exaggerated—until he started working there and realized: every single one of them was true.
This place was utterly insane.
[I told you long ago that this place was chaotic, but you were too enchanted by the butterfly to listen and insisted on coming here.]
"The more chaotic the place, the more inspiration it provides. This place is full of news material," Shen Ji's fingers twitched eagerly. "I want to interview everyone here and write a feature article."
"Have you read 'The Genius on the Left, the Madman on the Right'? I plan to write it in that style—it'll definitely sell!"
[...This isn't a mental hospital.]
"Same difference," Shen Ji shrugged. "To ensure authenticity, I need to buy a camera for documentation. But my money..."
Shen Ji suddenly remembered the money he'd earned at the facility was still in his old account. Withdrawing it wouldn't just alert Li Zhiyan—it might even reveal his location through transaction records.
Just like that, his enthusiasm deflated.
[Even if you had the money, it wouldn't matter. Remember your cover?]
[Dear Xiao Ji, you're a socially anxious person who only wants to interact with corpses and avoids living people.]
Shen Ji: ...
Damn it. A journalist reborn as a socially anxious introvert—what an adjustment.
Fortunately, he'd been maintaining a quiet, humorless demeanor, so the chances of being discovered were slim.
As he walked out while being lost in thought, a commotion erupted.
Someone came barreling around the corner and shouting at Shen Ji from afar, "Get out of the way!"
Originally planning to step aside, Shen Ji's mood soured at the aggressive tone. As the person charged toward him, Shen Ji turned to let them pass—just as a tiny mushroom sprouted from the floor. The person stepped squarely on it, and with a soft poof, the mushroom bounced them back, sending them flying through the air with wide-eyed shock.
They landed face-first, knocking themselves out cold.
Shen Ji gave them a brief glance before continuing on his way. Around the corner, their pursuers finally caught up.
Dressed in security uniforms, they panted as they apprehended the unconscious figure.
"Fast runner—must be a Mutant," one muttered while cuffing the person's hands behind their back.
Once they caught their breath, one guard called out to Shen Ji, "Thanks for that!"
They assumed Shen Ji had tripped the fugitive, causing them to crash and knock themselves out.
Shen Ji didn't respond, merely giving them a slight nod before walking away. His face mask obscured his features, leaving the guards with no clear impression of him.
Unconcerned, the security team dragged the unconscious culprit away by the legs. Their job is done.
No one around them batted an eye—not even a glance—clearly this had happened too many times for anyone to care.
Due to an extreme staff shortage, the Contaminant Disposal Center had resorted to recruiting convicts for community service.
One day of work could reduce their sentence by three days, yet even with this incentive, few prisoners volunteered. Thus, voluntary recruitment turned compulsory.
Among the forced laborers, there were always one or two who believed themselves geniuses destined to escape this hellhole.
Of course, so far, not a single prisoner had succeeded. Instead, countless had their sentences extended for attempting to flee, ultimately prolonging their forced service here.
Shen Ji couldn’t help but comment: "Feels like playing a battle royale."
Stepping out of the center’s gates, Shen Ji headed toward the shuttle area. The Contaminant Disposal Center provided dormitories, and the conditions were slightly better than those of the three major bureaus.
The reasoning was simple: with work this dangerous and grueling, better housing and higher pay were non-negotiable!
"High wages, great benefits, and still no one wants to join—just how dangerous is the Contaminant Disposal Headquarters?"
[Extremely dangerous. Statistics show that this year alone, 37 Pollutant corpses revived after death at the center, while 81 Stage IV contaminated patients mutated into Pollutants on-site. Annual casualties exceed a hundred.]
[Excluding special cases, the center’s fatality rate surpasses both the Security Corps and the Containment Facility.]
Shen Ji sighed. "Nothing comes easy anywhere."
As he mused, he walked toward the waiting area.
Just as he approached, he spotted a strange man sitting inside.
The man wore a bright yellow Daoist robe that was impossible to miss and his hair loosely tied under a crooked Daoist crown with stray strands hanging down, giving him a slightly deranged appearance.
Hiss… That unmistakable outfit.
[Absolutely correct. You’re not mistaken—this is Qin Changye.]
[Qin Changye, the third male lead of the protagonist’s team. A self-proclaimed descendant of immortals, reincarnated deity, and Daoist hybrid… though in reality, a fraud. Skilled in divination, he claims to see the threads of human karma. The protagonist, Li Zhiyan, recruited him from a street fortune-telling scam.]
[What’s he doing here?]
Shen Ji wanted to know too.
Most of Li Zhiyan’s team members were handpicked by him, yet they rarely stayed together. In fact, it was rare for the entire team to assemble even once a year.
Zhou Ye was one of the few who frequently stayed by Li Zhiyan’s side, while Jiang Ying, the Vice-captain and head of Q City’s Contaminant Disposal Center, seldom made appearances.
And then there was Qin Changye, who often played the fool and was usually left behind at the Anti-Contamination Control Center to guard the place.
Shouldn’t he be at the Anti-Contamination Control Center right now, drawing circles and casting curses on the higher-ups?
"Kitty, don’t doubt me! This divination is spot-on!" Qin Changye was still on the phone.
"It’s a grand fate—I had to come see what this destiny is about! My tortoise shell has never given me such a strong sign before!"
"Don’t insult my tortoise shell! It’s a sacred relic left behind by a millennium-old tortoise’s ascension! Not some Pollutant’s shell!"
"Huh? What kind of fate? A cursed one! A bloodbath awaits!"
"Yeah! Even if it’s a bloodbath, I had to check it out."
Shen Ji: "…"
‘System, let’s take another route.’
[…Agreed.]
So they turned and left, heading to another waiting area for their ride.
Just like that, Qin Changye and Zhou Ye happily finished their phone call and then began waiting for the bloody disaster foretold in his divination. Yet after half an hour, nothing happened.
Puzzled, he pulled out his tortoise shell from his clothes and immediately started another divination.
As he calculated, he exclaimed in shock, "It's gone?!"
"Something is blocking fate from meeting me—damn it! Let me figure out what's standing in our way!"
"It's a strange, formless substance? What is that?"
"A ghost?!"
[...emmmm.]
On the bus, Shen Ji sat in the back row while the little mushrooms, as usual, leaned out of the window with their caps nearly blown off by the wind as they swayed wildly. Yet, they never tired of this, treating it like a fun game.
‘What’s wrong with you?’ Shen Ji asked the system.
[He called me a ghost.] The system fumed. [Can I strike him with lightning?]
Shen Ji was surprised. ‘You can strike people with lightning?’
[Well, no. But I can infect his phone and computer with viruses. When he’s cursing his superiors online, I’ll send those curses straight to the people he’s targeting.]
The system added viciously, [I’ll even accidentally send it to a few extra people, so he’ll be paranoid about who betrayed him.]
Shen Ji: “……”
So vicious. So terrifying.
Meanwhile, Qin Changye, who was still telling fortunes, suddenly shivered as if struck by a chill. Puzzled, he recalculated his own fate.
“Damn it! Why is my impending doom even worse now?! I haven’t even run into that guy!”
…….
After getting off the bus, Shen Ji returned to his dorm.
The building wasn’t crowded, but there were still quite a few people coming off shift like him. Some even struck up conversations with Shen Ji.
The first question everyone asked was why he’d been so reckless as to apply for a job at the Contaminant Disposal Headquarters.
Sticking to his socially awkward persona, Shen Ji ended every conversation with three words:
“I don’t know.”
As the other person fell silent, Shen Ji waited for a beat before adding another three words.
“I’m sorry.”
And just like that, everyone backed off.
Pretending to be socially anxious wasn’t that hard—just act like you have social phobia and struggle with human interaction. Say something random, then tack on an apology.
[…Xiao Ji, you’re so timid. If Li Zhiyan showed up here, I doubt he’d even recognize you.]
[The Dr. Xiao Ji who dared to bicker sarcastically with him now only mutters ‘I’m sorry’ to people?]
“That’s how disguises work. Otherwise, what’s the point?” Shen Ji locked the dorm door. “It’s better if he doesn’t recognize me.”
Before Shen Ji moved in, the Contaminant Disposal Center had thoroughly cleaned the dorm and even provided fresh bedding. So, the moment he entered, he flopped straight onto the bed.
Who wouldn’t love a bed? Lying around doing nothing was the ultimate life goal!
He pulled out his phone to scroll for a bit, only to immediately see a new message from Li Zhiyan.
[Troublesome Protagonist: /Image/]
Since it was just a single image, he couldn’t even preview it without opening the chat.
[Tsk, he still hasn’t given up.] The system sighed. [Sending you one message a day, even though they all go unread. Maybe you should just give in and open it to mark it as read.]
“It’s not that serious.” Shen Ji dismissed the notification. “System, we can’t surrender so easily. We’ve already faked our death.”
“But have you noticed? The way the Contaminant Disposal Center handles contaminated corpses is similar to Li Zhiyan’s flames.”
The original novel never mentioned the Contaminant Disposal Center—the only connection was Jiang Ying.
Jiang Ying, the former head of Q City’s Contaminant Disposal Center, was later recruited by Li Zhiyan as the deputy captain of his special operations team. However, the plot hinted that Jiang Ying had initially tried to recruit Li Zhiyan into the center, only to end up getting poached herself and dragged into the team.
[The Contaminant Disposal Headquarters has collaborated with the Academy of Sciences, employing a unique 'fighting contamination with contamination’ method to handle Pollutants and the remains of contamination victims.]
[This technology originates from one of the four major contamination exclusion zones—Moth Valley. Within ten kilometers of Moth Valley's edge grows a flower called the Moth Blossom, which appears pale yellow. When plucked, it ignites into flames capable of incinerating Pollutants and significantly reducing contamination levels after burning.]
Shen Ji raised an eyebrow slightly. "Doesn’t this make it even more similar to Li Zhiyan’s ability?"
[That still depends on Li Zhiyan’s origins. Many Mutants’ abilities are linked to their place of awakening. For instance, those who awaken during the Peach Blossom Calamity often develop dream-walking abilities, while those from the Black Rat Incident secrete venom and possess hardened bodies.]
[As for Li Zhiyan, he was born near Moth Valley.]
Shen Ji mused, "So, [Mimicry Butterfly] could also be called [Mimicry Moth]?"
[But 'butterfly' sounds much better than 'moth'!]
Shen Ji: "…"
Fair point.
Still, he hadn’t expected Li Zhiyan to hail from the vicinity of Moth Valley—a detail even the original novel hadn’t mentioned.
Curious, he asked, "How did you find out about Li Zhiyan’s origins?"
[From the Anti-Contamination Control Center’s Classified Archives: S-class Mutant Li Zhiyan.]
[Heh! This system isn’t just for show! I’ll thoroughly investigate everyone who poses a conflict with us in the original story!]
Shen Ji clicked his tongue, impressed by the system’s diligence.
After coaxing the system into a cheerful mood, Shen Ji finally got out of bed and walked to the windowsill.
Pushing open the window, the crisp autumn wind rushed in.
Tiny mushrooms, following his movements, coiled around the sill before curiously peeking outside. One little mushroom, blown away by the wind, huffed and puffed its way back.
Shen Ji glanced at them.
"Why so few?"
Every time he arrived at a new place, countless fungal tendrils would surround him, filling the room with tiny mushrooms. Why were there so few this time?
[They’re scoping out the new territory.] The system, still basking in its triumph, explained: [So most of them stayed behind at the Contaminant Disposal Center. Once they’ve familiarized themselves, some will return.]
[In fact, the ones that followed you back did so because they didn’t want you to feel lonely.]
"Worried about me being lonely?" Shen Ji poked one of the mushroom heads on the sill.
"These little guys think too much."
The mushroom nuzzled his finger before happily wrapping around his wrist like a swing.
Shen Ji: "…"
Still little troublemakers at heart.
After teasing the mushrooms for a bit, Shen Ji changed the subject.
"What’s the deal with Qin Changye? Why did he come to the Contaminant Disposal Headquarters?"
[I looked into it—partly because someone influential pressured him.]
"Influential?" Shen Ji frowned. "Who?"
[It was an order from a high-ranking official at the Anti-Contamination Control Center.] The system replied: [This official has a daughter in her early twenties, a C-rank Mutant. She’s always wanted to join the security force, but as the official’s only precious child, she wasn’t allowed. So she ran away from home, concealed her identity, and enlisted. During the last minor earthquake at Abyss Zero, she was dispatched on a mission.]
[That high-ranking official has been frantically searching for her. It was only in the past few days that he traced her whereabouts, only to discover she'd been contaminated. Following protocol, she'd already been sent to the Contaminant Disposal Center.]
The system sighed as it explained: 【Qin Changye came precisely for this matter. He needs to intervene before she's executed and incinerated at the processing center.】
Shen Ji clicked his tongue, "Abusing power for personal gain?"
【It does lean that way.】
The system mused: 【There's still a gap between ordinary people and those with influence. At least high-ranking officials in the Anti-Contamination Control Center have access to Healing-type Mutants, giving them one last fighting chance.】
As for ordinary people who get contaminated and can only be sent to containment facilities, and then once the doctors there can do no more, they're inevitably transferred to the Contaminant Disposal Center for disposal.
Even the child of F City Facility Director could only secure Chu Ye's intervention—who then reported to Wen Jingyu to request Shen Ji's help—because being a C-class Sensory-type Mutant made him worth saving.
No matter the era, power remains a valuable commodity.
Yet Shen Ji still had doubts.
"Would Qin Changye really condone this official's abuse of power?"
In the original novel, Li Zhiyan's protagonist group was known for their free-spirited rebelliousness—likely reflecting Li Zhiyan's preference for assembling such unconventional teammates.
These were people who feared nothing, knowing Li Zhiyan would shoulder any consequences. How could they be intimidated by Anti-Contamination Control Center officials?
【This brings me to the second reason: Qin Changye initiated this himself.】
【Remember that original plot point? Whenever bored, Qin Changye would pretend to be a fortune-teller under bridges. That girl came to him for a reading.】
At this, Shen Ji recalled.
The novel did plant this foreshadowing—a young visitor approaching Qin Changye's makeshift fortune-telling stall. By then, Qin Changye had already gained renown in the central district as an occasionally appearing, mysteriously unreliable seer, with crowds gathering under bridges hoping to consult him.
The youth had asked whether to abandon her dream of joining the security forces due to family opposition.
That became Qin Changye's longest reading—a full thirty minutes, with the client patiently waiting. After completing the divination, he remained silent before delivering his verdict.
He warned that joining would mark her descent into darkness, with perilous roads ahead potentially costing her life. Yet persevering might bring unimaginable rewards—though he advised against it, leaving the choice to her.
Reading this, Shen Ji had immediately recognized it as significant foreshadowing, making notes to await its payoff.
Then the novel got axed.
Now this unresolved thread was resurfacing here?
Shen Ji tugged at his hair absently, feeling the slight sting. "So Qin Changye discovered this connection?
【Precisely. She joined the security forces under a false identity, got contaminated at Abyss Zero, and now stands one step from death.】
【Qin Changye intends to intervene, feeling karmic responsibility toward her.】
Shen Ji nodded, then fell silent.
"Wait." Shen Ji asked: "System, does this mean we've accidentally stumbled into main storyline territory again?"
"This counts as post-cancellation main plot development, doesn't it?"
【...Oh!】
[Xiao Ji, what kind of weird luck do you have? Even when you randomly pick a place to fake your death and hide, you still stumble into the main storyline?!]
[Wait, are we seriously about to meet the protagonist already?!]
[Oh right, I forgot—you actually really want to see the protagonist.]
Shen Ji: "..."
Since when did he really want to see Li Zhiyan?!
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